Clay cross kawasaki open days.

[phil churchett]

I know some of you will remember the Clay Cross Kawasaki Open Days that were held in May in the late 1980's and early '90's.
I can re-call seeing, Mike Hunnisett, Chris Rivett, Jerry, Mike Finlay, and of course Sam Holt. Any one i've forgotten? Does any-one have any pics from those days?

[Padders]

I have some Phil from when I used to run a Rickman Z900. I will see if I can dig them out and post a couple next weekend. They are somewhere in the deepest depth's of the loft.

Used to be a bloody good day out and started the season off well.

Padders

[phil churchett]

Sorry Padders, i remembered you saying at Stafford that you used to go. Yes, it was a good day out and if i remember rightly everyone who entered their bike for the concours was given a mug, t-shirt etc..
I bumped into Christine Clarke, [who used to run the open days], in Meadow Hall shopping centre a few years ago. She flung her arms around me and gave me a kiss! This rather surprised my wife who was with me, i then had some explaining to do....
There was always a good turn out and i remember a nice Harris Z900 that appeared in Streetfighters. That same mag also did a feature on the open day too.
Looking forward to seeing some pics.

[Rich]

Used to keep me in new t-shirts etc for a year did Christine. Shame they had all the problems when trying to enlarge.

[Padders]

Just checking I'am not going senile but did they not use to hold the show in a school yard. Drank a lot of beer since but I am sure I parked up one year on a hopscotch game.

Padders

[phil churchett]

Rich, i heard various rumours, some not very pleasant! when they got sold to a big company, [can't remember the name]. Christine tried so hard to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves and you could always see some class bikes. There was a superb modded Zed that appeared on the front cover of the August '97 club mag.
Some one else i remember seeing was Glenn Allen, who had a nice Z1000 that appeared on the Crossbow calendar a few years ago.
I seem to recall that when they had the old shop, [The Broadleys] they closed the road off as there was so many bikes.
Happy days.

[rimmer]

Just seen this post, I went to clay cross once, my bike wasn,t finished as usual so i went on the back of my mate Dannys Z1R all the way from Torquay to what we thought was Derby. It rained all the way up we were going to camp when we got thier, by the time we arrived we were soaked through and pissed off. We spent about 20 mins working what we should do and decided on using thier plastic bags inside our boots to stop our from feet from turning to prunes and got back on the bike and rode all the way home again, on the way we stopped to dry off and eat. I took my new watch off to wash my the dye off my hands that leached through from my gloves , and then left my watch in the wash room. It was an engagement present from my girlfriend I had to buy a new one before it was disscovered on my return. The good old Clay Cross Days!

[Rich]

They did loose a lot of money when they tried to enlarge the old shop and found that it had mine shafts under it! Then they built the new place and were bought out by Powersports. The rest of the rumours I didn't really bother listening to -wow that was diplomatic!

[phil churchett]

Yeh, Padders, you weren't mistaken, they used to take over the school playground for the weekend. I guess basically to give them more space.
I wonder what happened to all the bikes that they kept in storage?
I seem to remember they had a brand new Z1300 and various other new Kawasaki's still in crates and some very nice Zeds, including an as new Mk11. Plus various Triples. Christine also showed me the large number of unusual bikes they had stored in the loft.

[steve f]

I went every year on a H2 750 triple it was a good show shame it stopped and even worse that i sold my h2

[davejames]

According to the history with it my Z1B was owned by Clay Cross from Oct 1988 to June 1989. I suspect that it was either crashed or a shed or both prior to ending up there. It was then returned to some semblance of originality before having lots more spent on it there in 1991/92. :p

[Big John]

Yeah, just think thats 15 M****s.

[Christine Clarke]

Well hi to everyone who has posted their info on this site. Well for those that remembered me Im Christine and I left Powersports in 1998 to persue a career and some time with my family. I have been busy ever since and having had time with riding horses Im itching to get back onto bikes so logged on here to see what ppl I used to take the mickey out of were up to. Well Im moving to Wales in the near future and are on the voted best motorcycling roads in the UK by MCN. It would be absolutely great if anyone who used to come to the Clay Cross Shows want to come for a break if they were to get in touch and I could arrange for accomodation and bike storage for you. Drop a line and let me know what you think. Phil you old devil when I gave you the kiss and hug u thought all your xmass had come together ) Missing you all. Christine

[phil churchett]

Hi Christine,
great to hear from you, i have sent you a pm.
Do you happen to have any pics from the Open Days?